Holiday, Fame
Holiday, Fame is an American pop punk band formed in San Francisco, CA in 1989, and consisting of vocalist/guitarist Travis Westhill, vocalist/bassist Brandon DeVeille, and drummer Chris Flowers. The band reached mainstream success with their second release, Overrated, in 1993, but after internal arguments between band members, especially Westhill and DeVeille, the band went on an indefinite hiatus in 1998, and Westhill and DeVeille each developed solo careers, while Flowers drummed for several other bands. In 2001, the band decided to get back together and produced the immensely popular Holiday, Fame album in 2004, gaining success with a whole new audience. However, their next release, Missing the Point (2007) was less successful. Their sixth studio album, Who Cares About Romance, is scheduled for release in September 2011. History 1989–1990: Formation & Put It in the Past Over the summer of 1989, guitarist Travis Westhill, at age 13, asked his friend, Brandon DeVeille, who had known each other since the second grade, if he wanted to start a band, knowing DeVeille played bass. After DeVeille showed interest in the topic, the two began playing songs by their favorite artists together, and decided to "officially" start a band, recruiting local drummer Chris Flowers and Westhill and DeVeille both equally taking up singing. Together, the three performed cover songs locally under the name Radio Friendly. The three quickly gained popularity, and by October 1989 they managed a record deal with then-independent label Laughless Records. However, it was discovered the band's name "Radio Friendly" had already been taken and so they subsequently changed their name to Holiday, Fame. In November 1989, Holiday, Fame entered the recording process of their debut album, and, since their lyrics, at the time, were not well-thought out, the band finished the writing process within a couple of days. The album was recorded through November, and finally released the album, titled Put It in the Past, on December 20, 1989, and helped Holiday, Fame gain limited success through parts of California as they continued to perform in support of the release. 1990–1995: Overrated & mainstream success Holiday, Fame toured extensively through California in 1990, however only on weekends and breaks, due to school. Eventually, however, the trip became too long to travel by bus and make it in time to get back to school, and so had to tour within a limited radius of their residence. However, over the summer of 1991, Holiday, Fame reached many people and gained many new fans, helping their album, Put It in the Past to debut on the Billboard 200 at #199. This prompted Westhill, DeVeille, and Flowers to agree to drop out of school in September 1991 and Holiday, Fame toured nonstop through the rest of 1991 and 1992. By late 1992, the band decided to begin work on a follow up to the 1989 release, Put It in the Past, and after spending very little time writing an entire second album, they went back to their Laughless Records studio and by spring 1993, had completely finished the album. The album, titled Overrated, was given a summer 1993 release date. Due to the sudden increase in popularity Laughless Records experienced in the early 1990s by emerging artists, including Holiday, Fame, one of their songs, "Selling Out", was taken from the album and released separately as the lead single in April 1993. The single was a surprise success, debuting at #96 on the Billboard Hot 100 and, after much promotion from Laughless and Holiday, Fame, managed to break the Top 40, peaking at #35, a very big success for both Holiday, Fame and Laughless, at the time. The album, Overrated, with help by the success of "Selling Out", managed to debut at #84 on the Billboard 200. Thanks to the mainstream success of the album's second single, "Where's the Weekend", peaking at #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 and their fourth/final single, "About the Media", peaking at #15, Overrated managed to peak at #4 on the Billboard 200 in March 1994, and was certified 4x Platinum by the RIAA. Their success was also helped by their extensive touring through the entire United States and parts of Canada, in 1994 and 1995, especially. 1995–1998: What a Boring Day & internal arguments/break up In July 1995, Holiday, Fame, finished up with touring, decided to take a three month-break from recording music, though deciding not to go to college, as anticipated by many fans. In October 1995, the band began producing their third album, with the goal of transitioning their pop punk feel into a more college-friendly dynamic. However, despite this effort, the album performed underwhelmingly. The lead single, "Unmotivated", released in November 1995, debuted/peaked at #113 outside the Billboard Hot 100. The album, What a Boring Day, released in February 1996, peaked on the Billboard 200 at #39, considered a commercial failure by Laughless Records. The other two singles from the album, "Moving Out" and "Waiting for That Day" failed to chart on any mainstream charts. A surprising majority of Holiday, Fame's previous fans considered the band 'sell outs' for the band's alleged failure to maintain their musical sound of their previous two albums. Touring through 1996 and 1997 in support of What a Boring Day was not near as well-received as with the touring for Put It in the Past and '' On top of that, DeVeille and Westhill soon started having conflicting arguments regarding the band's next direction when deciding to record their next album; DeVeille wished to please their previous fans who complained about their new direction, while Westhill felt that it would be more and more unnatural for them to maintain a teenage punk culture the older they were. Eventually, Flowers stepped in, in attempt to reach a compromise between the two. However, escalating tensions between the three started to show in their performance. On April 12, 1998, while Holiday, Fame were performing in Denver, CO, DeVeille, suddenly angry, knocked his mic over and threw his bass guitar across the stage, and he stormed off the platform. DeVeille stated in an interview the following day that he was "never going to play music with Travis Westhill and Chris Flowers again". On April 15, 1998, Westhill and Flowers were interviewed about this comment, and the two decided to officially announce that Holiday, Fame had disbanded. 1998–2002: Solo careers & side projects Following the band's split, it was initially unclear to the public as to what the Westhill, DeVeille, and Flowers had planned for each of their futures. Westhill and DeVeille each pursued solo careers; while DeVeille chose a very obscene, dark, punk rock-esque approach, Westhill opted for a more depressing, subtle kind of music, leaning more towards alternative rock. Despite their music being different, both of their albums' lyrics were mostly about the band's break up and their perspective opinions on it. Flowers went on to drum for several other bands, including The Rock N Roll Rabbits, Check Out Broadway, and Forging Your Name. DeVeille released his debut solo album, Middle Finger, on September 2, 1998, roughly five months after Holiday, Fame's break up. Due to it being popularly agreed that DeVeille was the cause of the break up, this resulted in a public relations disaster, and the album was poorly received, debuting at a very low #68 on the Billboard 200 and managing no charting singles (neither "Shitty Day" nor "There Goes Sanity" charted on the Hot 100). Westhill took much longer to complete his solo debut, not releasing Moving On until May of 1999. Being viewed very positively due to the break up over a year before, his popularity helped the album debuted at #9 on the Billboard 200, considered a success. The album featured the hit single, "Lost to Fame", which managed to peak at #17 on the Billboard Hot 100. Moving On was certified 2x Platinum by the RIAA, while DeVeille's has not been certified Gold. The critical/commercial success of Moving On caused much anger from DeVeille, who said in an interview, "He Westhill pretty much defamed me so he could live it up." Westhill responded in a subsequent interview that DeVeille was being "childish". In 2001, Westhill released a moderately successful follow up to Moving On, titled Looking Back, which, also alternative rock, was mainly about Westhill missing the joy that being a part of Holiday, Fame had brought him, and about loneliness in general. Discography *''Put It in the Past'' (1989) *''Overrated'' (1993) *''What a Boring Day'' (1996) *''Holiday, Fame'' (2004) *''Missing the Point'' (2007) *''Who Cares About Romance?'' (2011)